Multiple Flavors of Cloud Computing Become IT Norm

Multiple Flavors of Cloud Computing Become IT Norm

There's lots of diversity in cloud models. A new study shows the use of multiple private and public clouds is becoming the new IT norm.

Use of Cloud Computing

95% are using some form of the cloud; only 6% are using private cloud only and only 18% public cloud only. A full 89% also plan to use public clouds in 2016, while 77% will have a private cloud. Another 71% will have hybrid clouds. The average number of public and private clouds at company is three of each.

Extent of Cloud Use

Just under a third (29%) are heavy users of the cloud; while 25% describe themselves as cloud explorers. Another 26% consider themselves cloud beginners.

Multiple Clouds to Rule the Enterprise

82% of enterprise IT organizations want to see multi-cloud environments. Just over half (55%) are betting on hybrid clouds, while 11% will have multiple private clouds and 16% will have multiple public clouds.

Cloud Priorities

The top priority for central IT teams is to leverage hybrid clouds (29%), closely followed by using public clouds (27%) and building a private cloud (23%). Using a hosted private cloud comes in at 10%.

Top Cloud Computing Benefits

Among the top cloud computing benefits are faster access to infrastructure (62%) and greater scalability (58%). Higher availability and faster time to market both tied at 52%.

Top Cloud Challenges

Leading the list of challenges this year are the lack of resources/expertise (32%) and security (29%). Compliance, managing multiple clouds, and costs tied at 26%.

Security Still a Major Challenge

However, there has been a "significant decline in security concerns" among enterprise central IT teams; 37% reported security as a significant challenge this year, down from 41% last year and 47% in 2014.

Integrating DevOps

Just under three-quarters (74%) are adopting DevOps. Chef and Puppet adoption is running neck-and-neck, each at 32%.

Docker Container Adoption

Nearly one in three (27%) are already using Docker containers, with another 35% planning to do so.

Public Cloud Platform Usage

In the public cloud space, 57% use Amazon Web Services. Adoption of Azure IaaS grew to 17%, while Azure PaaS reached 13%.

Private Cloud Usage

In the private cloud world, VMware vSphere is most widely used, at 44%, versus 19% for OpenStack and 19% for VMware vCloud Suite. Another 15% are evaluating or experimenting with VMware vSphere vs. 29% for OpenStack and 21% for VMware vCloud Suite.

While the majority of application workloads continue to run in some form of what might loosely be called a private cloud, there's no doubt that there's been a significant shift in terms of deploying application workloads on public cloud services. However, the use of multiple private and public clouds is becoming the new IT norm, according to the findings of a new survey conducted by RightScale, a provider of cloud management tools. The study, based on a poll of 1,060 IT professionals, shows that a small percentage of respondents are using only private clouds or only public clouds. In fact, not only will IT organizations use private and public clouds to host distinct classes of application workloads, many also expect to manage hybrid cloud computing environments. For solution providers, that means the amount of diversity in cloud models will be relatively high, which means more often than not that IT organizations will be looking for external help to manage all that complexity. One sign that the cloud is maturing is the fact that security is now considered less of a challenge compared with the past two years. Channel Insider examines key findings from the study.